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marcymurli's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful book about becoming. It's refreshing to read such a beautiful memoir--in verse no less!--about a young Black girl coming into her own voice. The way she charts her development as a storyteller is simple and powerful. Equally moving is the relationship between the granddaughter and her grandparents.
buddy524's review against another edition
5.0
Probably one of the best books in verse for young adults that I've read. Woodson does an amazing job being poetic and beautiful in her writing without getting too literary. She captures her experience in such a way that makes readers connect to it.
emily_m_green's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Brown Girl Dreaming is a memoir in verse by Jaqueline Woodson. Woodson writes about her childhood in Ohio, South Carolina, and New York. Her parents split when she was very young and her mom moved with Jackie and her older brother and sister to Greenville, South Carolina, where life was completely different. There they lived with their grandparents and became acquainted with life in the South, including racism and segregation. Their grandmother practiced Seventh Day Adventism and while their mother no longer did, she expected her children to attend services. They are not allowed to play with many of the neighbor children, and so they were lonely.
Eventually her mother moved them to New York, where life was again completely different. There Jackie falls under her sister’s shadow as Odella has great academic gifts and catches on to new concepts quickly. However, one of the book’s strongest threads is Jackie’s love of stories, and the book takes pains to show how telling stories was both a passion and at times an obsession for young Jackie.
There is clear movement for Jackie from the beginning to the end of Brown Girl Dreaming, although the plot does not feel as strong as most memoirs. This is in large part because the book is broken into poems instead of chapters. At times it does not even feel episodic, as many memoirs do, but as though it is trying to capture an event in a moment, and the event is instead strangled by the lines, too trapped to express the whole of it. The lyrics do, however, add weight and beauty.
Would I teach this book? This past school year I did teach Brown Girl Dreaming. It was a choice book for the sixth graders, which a few chose and a few for whom I thought it would be good to push in the direction of this book. Few students picked it as a first choice, and those who did read it were a bit frustrated with the poetry structure. We read a few of the book reviews that were published when the book first came out, such from The New York Times, Washington Post, and Kirkus Reviews. Students were asked to read the reviews and determine what they agreed and disagreed with. It was a challenge in some of the reviews for them to identify what was summary and was opinion. We practiced using evidence to support whether we agreed or disagreed with the writer. We also discussed windows and mirrors in the story, and students were instructed to include a specific example of both a window (something that felt different from their own experiences) and a mirror (something that felt similar to their own experience) in their own reviews.
It was not a favorite among the students I think, in part, because it was so different from what they have read before. The lines and stanzas asked to be read differently from sentences and paragraphs and resist being read through quickly, as many adolescent readers believe that it is the ability to read quickly which makes someone a good reader. The dramas of moving and wishing for a deep, forever friendship resonated the most for them.
If you wish to share materials or see the formative and summative assessments I used in teaching Brown Girl Dreaming, please DM me.
bookishrealm's review against another edition
5.0
This was such an amazing book and I can definitely understand why people loved it so much. It was empowering and I loved reading about the changes that Woodson went through as a child. We also received the opportunity to get insight to the political, social, and economic climate of the country. Even then it was so different from me because it was all through the eyes of a child. If you haven't read this book I definitely need you to pick it up.
madisynoswald's review against another edition
5.0
I read this for my children’s literature class, and it was great !
kirstenrose22's review against another edition
5.0
This is amazing, and well worth all the awards. I don't even like novels in verse, usually, but this one might be the gold standard.
beloved_bridget's review against another edition
4.0
this was so cute, really beautiful. I feel like middle grade memoirs written in verse is a surprisingly large sub-genre and so far I haven't read one I didn't enjoy
amygebhardt's review against another edition
4.0
Audiobook- Read by the author
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson is a biography in verse, offering a poignant glimpse into the author's childhood in South Carolina and New York during the 1960s and 1970s. Through accessible yet emotionally charged poems, Woodson explores themes of identity, belonging, and the power of storytelling amidst the backdrop of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement. Her story, infused with hope and resilience, serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle for equality and the transformative power of literature.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson is a biography in verse, offering a poignant glimpse into the author's childhood in South Carolina and New York during the 1960s and 1970s. Through accessible yet emotionally charged poems, Woodson explores themes of identity, belonging, and the power of storytelling amidst the backdrop of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement. Her story, infused with hope and resilience, serves as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle for equality and the transformative power of literature.